Yeak is not secret about our love of all things Meat. While we are big supporters of Vegan and Vegetarian food, and make it quite often, we do like our Meat. So when we found out we were going to the Kamayan Pig Roast last weekend, we were excited, and maybe drooling at the idea a little bit.
(Disclaimer: The chefs who put on the Kamayan Pig Roast invited us to the event and asked for us to bring our hot sauces. When we got there, they gave us heaping plates, beer, and met some very nice people. We also talked to a guy with a chameleon on his shoulder. He was a little weird.)
Kamayan Pig Roast is a pop-up put on by Chef Darren from We Have Noodles and Chef Kyle from Kalan Kitchen. The Asian fusion flavors come from Filipino, Thai, and maybe some Chinese influence in there.
Located in Venice, we should have guessed where it would be. If you know the area: Venice+Food=Abbot Kinney. Located off a side street on the ground floor of what looks like a residence, it was easy to find and parking was not a problem (!). We have to say, the location and atmosphere was great, with a live DJ playing but not overwhelming. Plenty of seating and completely sold out meant that when we got there (a little late but not too bad) we had to look around and just find somewhere.
One of the chefs helping out was cool enough to set us up with a little of everything and talked about the different dishes. We brought out Krahom and Chruk, which worked out perfectly. The sauces paired extremely well with the food there. Everything really was great, but if we had to pick out our favorites, the Pancit Bihon, Lumpia and Roast Pig were fantastic.
We would also like to say Tsingtao is not necessarily our favorite beer, but it worked really well with the food and deserves a shoutout for sponsoring it. This really was the right beer for the food.
We added Krahom to the rice and Chruk to a few other places. The Roast Pig we left alone. That pork was done perfectly and just melted. It was our first roast pig (though we have heard the legendary stories of its awesomeness) and it lived up to the hype.
We had a chance to talk to Chef Darren about the food and his influences. The brick and mortar restaurant he’s opening up in Silverlake will blend several Southeast Asian styles focusing on noodles. We are definitely looking forward to it.
The food was very solid, if not flashy. To us, it had a lot of traditional elements that blended very well together. Adding the hot sauces, they just popped more, and maybe that is how they are designed. Saying that, we could eat the noodles and pork all day and not get tired of them.. Because the chefs mentioned doing this pop-up again, we would definitely go.
We had a great time and enjoyed talking with everyone there. We’re looking forward to the next one!
